Lessons With Golf's Longest Hitter

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There are many Mike Austin self-apponted guru’s/ experts out there that have, as Mike would say, “the damn thing wrong.” That’s hurting a lot of the guys and gals that are trying to learn the real deal. There’s a turn in the Mike Austin golf swing. It’s not just a shift. Why else would Mike Austin be saying to keep the rear knee and hip going until it reaches the big toe? That action is driving the swing. It’s a shift of weight and a turn.

Mike Austin often spoke to me about Babe Ruth. This guy wasn’t call the “Sultan of Swat” for nothing. He’d shift his weight to the back foot and then shift it to the front. Here’s the Babe playing hand ball. Look familiar? He’s certainly not keeping both legs flexed and twisting his upper body against his lower body.

I recently watched some “highlights” of the Long Driving Championship. It made me wince thinking about how Mike Austin would have reacted to it. Here’s a great clip with Mike telling a story of his long hitting days while impressing upon me the importance of tempo. Enjoy.

In response to input and comments from our followers following the most recent post on refinements of the proper compound pivot, I re-post this video. It was first posted to counter assertions that Mike Austin’s teaching were cryptic (versus hands-on). But, it also shows the link between the heel and the pivot. Mike Austin is stepping on my rear heel. When he does so, I can’t even begin to make the pivot. Try the exercise yourself.

Note too the drill Mike used to get the student to feel the compound pivot. Grab your back pocket with and pull upward and forward with your lead arm. Raise that rear heel. (Raising the rear heel and flexing the rear knee also lowers the right hip.) The bottom 6 joints drive the upper 6 joints.

I realize that everyone is clamoring for the hand action. And, it’s coming. But, I can assure you that the lower 6 joint issues are critical – not just the motion, but the angles. They have a direct impact on all the other motions. Done correctly, you can kill it even without adding the hand. Here is a tremendous video on the proper hip action. You can see the results in the swing when done properly. You can hear my reactions in the background. Our buddy, the student, also does a great job of describing the incorrect action.

Rather than make everything perfect at this point, I thought I’d present some video I shot last summer in an effort to provide Mike Austin swing fundamentals. Hopefully, it will allow people to pick up the overall elements of the swing and allow people to pick up on some of the subtleties and nuances of the actual Mike Austin teaching clips. Here’s the first of a series.

Mike Austin’s secrets reside in the efficient movement of the muscles and joints. Mike had a keen mind. He used his background in kinesiology to ascertain the correct movements and then used mental imagery to efficiently and effortlessly perform those motions. Here, Mike Austin’s hands-on lesson highlighted the QL and the spinae erector muscle groups. More specifically, Mike demonstrated which spinae to activate. As a right handed player, the QL contracted the 12th rib of my left side down toward my left hip. The left spinae then provided the rotary motion allowing the front of my body to swing like a door in front of me. Notice the difference in motion when the player improper activates the right spinae.

The right knee is flexed at address. Straightening the right knee pulls the right hip back thirty degrees. (You are now at the 4 o’clock / 10 o’clock position that we have visited before.) The right knee is the trigger. You did nothing actively with your right hip. You then need to move that right hip 120 degrees to the finish – your hips finishing perpendicular to the flight line. Of course, that’s done by the ankles and knees – not by spinning the hips. Note Mike Austin’s “hands on” teaching method. Critics (who, by the way, never took a lesson from the man) love to allege that his teaching was overcomplicated and that he excessively utilized medical terms. To borrow an oft-cited phrase of Mr Austin, “That is crap!”

Here’s the beginning of the end of all of the rubbish out there regarding Mike Austin’s teachings.
I’ve split clips ups due to system constraints. I’ve also done so in order to emphasize key segments.
You start to see many key components of the swing: the movement of the heels, the weight shift, the clubhead facing the ball.
As you watch these clips over and over again and watch additional clips you will capture new nuances that you can add to your own swings.

From my second day of lessons with Mike Austin. The swing does not end at the ball – far from it. Keep the body moving. The ankles, knees, hips and belly button must continue to turn even after reaching the ball.

Sure, Mike Austin taught long drive pioneer Mike Dunaway how to crush it. But his gift of a free flowing, powerful swing was not limited to the Arkansas slugger. Mike Austin’s genius rested in taking doctors, lawyers, accountants, movie studio production people, authors and good old hardworking ladies and gentlemen and giving them incredible power and accuracy in short order. He despised the modern approach – keeping the feet attached to the ground and twisting the upper body above a stable lower body; spinning the hips; swinging the arms; and maintaining a bowed wrist at impact. Instead, he applied his expertise in engineering and kinesiology to golf – just as he did previously in his boxing career.

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Welcome! This blog reveals the true, never before released, secrets of golf's longest hitter, Mike Austin. It is the accumulation of hundreds of hours of taking and observing lessons directly with Mike. These are the keys to unlocking effortless power in your golf swing. Enjoy!

"I don't know anybody on the Tour that can hit the ball like that!" Mike Austin about Chuck

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This blog reveals the true, never before released, secrets of golf's longest hitter, Mike Austin. It is the accumulation of hundreds of hours of taking and observing lessons directly with Mike. These are the keys to unlocking effortless power in your golf swing. Enjoy!